Conventional apparel, and particularly athletic apparel, is designed to enhance a subject's performance, e.g., to maximize the athlete's performance or to give the athlete an edge over their competition. For example, much athletic apparel today is designed to be lightweight, to wick away moisture, and to provide low wind resistance, to thereby minimize weight effects, heating effects, and wind drag on the athletes that wear it. Such apparel also may be specially designed to protect and support the wearer's body (or a portion thereof) during the athletic activity for which it was designed.
Footwear is no exception. Conventional footwear products protect the feet during a wide variety of different activities, and in many instances, footwear products assist the wearer in better performing the activities at hand. For example, athletic shoes typically contain structures to protect and support an athlete's feet while running, jumping, twisting, swinging, kicking, and the like during athletic activity. Many types of athletic footwear also include spikes, cleats, or other traction devices that assist athletes in gaining or maintaining traction, position, and/or speed, thereby further improving or enhancing their athletic performance.
While conventional apparel, including athletic footwear and other types of footwear, is useful in protecting and supporting the wearer's body, this conventional apparel typically is completely passive in that it does not actively interact with the subject in any manner. For example, in some instances, it may be useful to provide footwear or other apparel items that interact with the wearer, for example, by applying a stimulus to the feet or other parts of the body, to dynamically, consciously, and/or reflexively affect the wearer's performance, motion, orientation, balance, timing, or the like. Moreover, it would be useful in at least some instances to provide footwear or other apparel that interacts with the wearer, for example, by providing dynamic, conscious, and/or reflexive feedback to the subject as a training aid and/or as a performance enhancing aid. Conventional footwear and/or other apparel do not meet these needs.